Most common Paneer Recipes from India

Paneer / Cottage cheese / Tofu is the most popular ingredient used in vegan cooking in India. It is the most common food item that you’ll find on the restaurant menu regardless of state or region. And there are some common paneer dishes which are famous all across India and every restaurant makes sure to have these dishes on their menu card. These dishes are not only delicious but simple to cook.

Most common Paneer Recipes in India

Paneer butter masala Recipe

The Paneer Butter Masala is a Punjabi curry prepared using cottage cheese, tomato, onion, cream and butter. It’s a little sweet gravy based dish which is mostly eaten with Naan or Chapati or tandoori roti.

Add yogurt and stir until gravy becomes thick. Add fried paneer cubes, grated paneer add 1/2 -1 cup water and simmer for 5 minutes, until all the flavour is absorbed into paneer.

Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.

Palak Paneer Recipe

It is another very famous Cottage cheese based dish which is loved all over India. The main ingredients of this dish are Palak (spinach), cream and Paneer (tofu). Palak Paneer is actually a Dhaba dish which is found in all the road side restaurants in Northern India. The dish is basically spinach gravy with diced tofu pieces. Some people fry the pieces first and then add them to the gravy and some add the tofu at an initial stage of the gravy preparation and cook it with the gravy.

Ingredients:

Spinach – 500 gms

Onions – 5 medium sized

Garlic – 2-3 flakes

Cooking oil – 6-7 tbsps

Cummin seeds – 1 tbsp

Paneer – 150-200 gms

Salt to taste

Garam Masala

Geera Powder

Chilli Powder

Method:

Cook the spinach in water.

Drain the water and then make puree of the spinach leaves.

Cut 4 of the onions finely and saute them till transparent.

Grind the other onion and the garlic flakes to a fine paste.

Add this paste to the sauted onions. Also add the puree and the spice powders. Add some water if necessary.

Let boil for a minute or two.

Cut the paneer to cubes of desired size (preferably not too small). Fry this in oil till golden brown

Add this paneer to the prepared palak.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Mutter(green peas) paneer Recipe

This is a very common dish often made in Indian households. One of the easiest curry based dish is probably the tastiest Paneer dish. The main ingredients of the dish are green peas, Paneer, onion and tomato. It is cooked like any other day to day curry.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of green peas

1 cup of paneer cubed

2 medium onions chopped

1 tomato chopped

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

pinch of asafetida (hing)

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp poppy seeds

5 cashewnuts

salt per taste

3 tbsp oil

coriander to garnish

Method:

Boil the green peas and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a pan.Put the onions, asafoetida, ginger garlic paste and fry till the onions are slightly browned.

Put the tomatoes, turmeric powder and fry for another 5 minutes on low flame.

Add red chilli powder, garam masala and saute for few minutes.

Add the peas with little amount of water and bring it to a boil.

Meanwhile grind the cashews and poppy seeds to a fine paste.

Now add the cashew-poppy paste .Stir gently and let the gravy thicken.

Finally add the paneer cubes.Cook for a minute and remove from fire.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot

Paneer Tikka Recipe

The most preferred vegetarian starter and undoubtedly the delicious one is the Paneer Tikka. The big chunks of marinated cottage cheese are simply mouth watering. The dish hails from the North Indian state Punjab. It is the best barbecued paneer one can ever have.